Christ Church Moreton Hall

At Christ Church, we use the free church presentation software OpenLP during our Sunday services. This is a great little piece of software which handles songs, bible verses, powerpoint presentations, images, video and now audio too.

We've been using it for nearly two years now, and find it very useful. We can put a service plan together in minutes, and easily make changes or add new songs and Bible verses, even during the service. Prior to this we used PowerPoint and although this allowed great flexibility in the layout and stunning slides could be produced, it was a time consuming exercise and it wasn't easy to add songs or Bible verses at the last minute.

openlp is very easy to use. During our weekend away last year we had to find a view volunteers to operate it at the last minute, and they were able to run it fine with just a few minutes training!

We were fortunate to get a preview of the new version 1.2 a few weeks early and the new audio backing track feature came in very useful during our Bible Holiday club. The team sing some very lively songs with the children, and in the past it's been a bit of a juggle switching between media player and the projection software. Now we just need to open up the lyrics and when the team are ready just click play without the need to switch programs or lean over to a CD player.

The new Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Rt Revd Nigel Stock, is recording some podcasts over the next few weeks. You can listen to them here.

Jonathan Ford has been interviewed by BBC Radio Suffolk as part of Rachel's Weekend Visits, and it can be listened to alongside the corresponding Moreton Hall feature article.

There are lots of community and 'web2.0' type sites out there, but unfortunately I don't have time to keep up with them all.
However I've heard a lot about Twitter recently, so thought I'd have a play. Not sure who has time to actually use this site, but it seems very popular so may as well join the crowd!
Here is a listing of the various sites we use or are listed on.

The Delta Plus team have already signed up with MySpace and TCT with Piczo.
I've just signed us up on Twitter, so new postings should appear there.
YouTube and GodTube host our videos.
Ourmedia host our sermons/audio.
Our church is listed on MyChurch and Facebook.

At Christ Church, we welcome everyone. Even those who have typed our name incorrectly!
So this page has been created in the hope that it will be picked up by search engines for those people who type Christchurch instead of Christ Church. Or Morton Hall, instead of Moreton Hall. They may even type Bury Saint Edmunds in full! Without this page, Google or Yahoo wouldn't have any idea where to look!
Also, some like to misspell our Minister's name. Instead of Jonathan, some may type Jonathon Ford, Jonothan Ford or sometimes Johnathan Ford. We're happy to welcome you all.

Please click here to get to the front page.